Sep 30, 2015 | By Benedict
Often confined to the lab or office, 3D printers must dream of having the kind of Arctic adventure enjoyed by one particular machine this summer. For about three weeks in July, a MakerBot 3D printer was taken on a scientific mission aboard the Cutter Healy icebreaker, led by the Coast Guard Research and Development Center in New London. The purpose of the expedition was to look at the Coast Guard’s possible future role in the Arctic. The 3D printer was used to perform odd jobs such as kitchen and shoe repairs, with the crew finding its versatility invaluable.
The Cutter Healy, image from military.com
The 3D printer was managed and operated by mechanical engineering professor Ron Adrezin, who has praised the machine for its role in solving minor problems aboard the vessel. The same MakerBot now sits proudly in Adrezin’s office and is used for a variety of purposes. Adrezin's job on the expedition was to gauge the practical use of having a 3D printer on board, and to see if he could help out on various projects by creating 3D-printed parts. "One of the goals was to run the printer as much as possible," he said.
A few days after the Healy left Nome, Alaska, disaster struck. To the dismay of the crew, the onboard dishwasher, which is tasked to go through around 70 loads of dishes a day, broke. Those aboard the ship had to use paper plates and cups, which were in limited supply and can easily spoil the atmosphere of a nice meal.
Fortunately for all aboard the cutter, Adrezin and his MakerBot 3D printer were on hand to resolve the problem. "We basically made the model, coated it with silicon, added the other parts to it…” Adrezin modestly explained. "It was really just a float for the dishwasher so it wouldn't overfill”.
The 3D printer used the relatively inexpensive thermoplastic PLA to print the vital dishwasher component, which was just one of 20-50 items printed during the three-week mission. The complete success of the dishwasher operation opened the floodgates for other members of the crew to approach Adrezin with their own technical issues. "Once we fixed the dishwasher, projects started coming in very, very fast," Adrezin said.
The MakerBot was used to 3D print a diverse range of items, including a case for a GoPro video camera attached to a large Aerostat balloon, which was tethered to the ship to provide radar surveillance and take pictures, and shoe inserts for a crew member "whose feet were killing him”. The afflicted crew member was extremely lucky that the 3D printer was on board, as he wouldn't have been able get inserts until sometime in October when the Healy returns to Seattle. Some of the 3D-printed items were made purely to keep spirits high on the vessel, such as plastic challenge coins with a picture of a polar bear and the words "Healy 1501 USCGA RDC.”
A MakerBot 5th Generation 3D printer
The MakerBot 5th generation 3D printer used by Adrezin and the team costs about $2,800, and was donated to the academy by the Coast Guard Alumni Association. The academy started using 3D printers in 2008, when Adrezin started working there. It now has several 3D printers, and Adrezin hopes that any future missions would employ a multiplicity of smaller 3D printers, for multiple prints to be carried out simultaneously. The MakerBot was reportedly “always running”, as crew members realised its huge potential.
Posted in 3D Printing Applications
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